Weather forecasters say New Jersey is under an increasing threat of taking a direct hit from a powerful - and perhaps unprecedented - hybrid storm that government officials have dubbed a 'Frankenstorm.' Pictured here are waves on the coast of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic as Hurricane Sandy closed in on that area Thursday.Orlando Barria/EPA

With each passing hour, the Garden State is under an increasing threat of taking a direct hit from a powerful — and perhaps unprecedented — hybrid storm government officials have dubbed a "Frankenstorm."

Hurricane Sandy, which had sustained winds of over 105 mph Thursday night before dropping to 90 mph early Friday morning, is churning north along the southeastern coast and is expected to become a crucial element in a mutating monster of a storm that could bring a nightmarish combination of severe weather to New Jersey from Sunday through Halloween.

Record-setting coastal flooding, major river and road flooding and a prolonged period of winds gusting over hurricane-force strength are all possibilities on the table, forecasters say, though the exact track of the storm continued to confound them tonight.

"This is going to be one where we’re going to be flying by the seat of our pants as meteorologists," said Steven DiMartino, owner of NY NJ PA Weather, part of the Storm Surge LLC group. "It has all the facets of difficulty of forecasting for a hurricane. But it also has all facets of difficulty of forecasting a nor’easter. It’s going to have to be watched by the hour as it evolves."

HURRICANE SANDY UPDATE

STATUS: Sandy was a Category 2 hurricane Thursday night, downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane as of early Friday morning

LOCATION: Storm was 15 miles east of Great Abaco Island, 480 miles south-southeast of Charleston, S.C., as of 8 a.m. Friday

SPEED & DIRECTION: Moving northwest at 10 mph as of Friday morning, slightly slower than it was moving Thursday night

Source: National Hurricane Center

As Sandy moves north through the Western Atlantic Ocean, it is being penned in by several weather disturbances to the north, east and west, slowing its movement and leaving it little place to go but slowly up the coast. As this occurs, a low-pressure system diving southeastward across the United States is expected to begin to interact with Sandy, pulling it toward the coast and transforming it into a hybrid between a tropical system and a nor’easter.

As this transformation occurs, Sandy’s wind and rain fields could expand dramatically as it slowly lurches toward the Mid-Atlantic or New England coast.

Where, exactly, the storm ends up remains murky, but in the last 72 hours forecast models have slowly zeroed in on a major impact for New Jersey.

"The difficulty in the forecast is, as this transition occurs, you’re spreading the storm out over a very large area. You’re talking about millions of millions of people that could be affected," said Henry Margusity, a senior meteorologist at Accuweather. "The exact track of the storm, that’s going to dictate how bad its going to be and for who. But this is a multi-million dollar maybe a billion dollar damage storm that’s shaping up."

Frank Cecala/The Star-Ledger

Unlike Tropical Storm Irene, one of the most crucial battlegrounds during the storm could be the coast. Were the storm to make landfall on, or track close enough to New Jersey, record-setting coastal flooding is possible. The threat would be exacerbated by a full-moon on Monday, when astronomical tides will be at their highest, and because the storm is forecast to affect New Jersey for several days, coastal flooding may be possible over four to five tidal cycles.

"This is a potentially horrible situation for the New Jersey coast," DiMartino said.

The forecast for the storm is highly complex, and has little to no historical comparison, said David Robinson, the state climatologist at Rutgers University.

"It borders on rare to unprecedented on its potential," he said. "This is a threat that should be taken seriously. I’m not suggesting people should run right now to the grocery store for your bread and milk, but it needs to be watched closely."

A handout infared satellite image made and released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) today. NOAA

The burgeoning threat has pushed emergency officials, utility and transit companies around the state to begin girding for the storm’s potential impacts. Businesses that sell generators and sump pumps were swamped Thursday as residents scrambled to prepare for the worst.

"We’re just starting to get bombarded with phone calls," said Sean Fallon, a salesman at Cooper Power Systems in Ocean Township.

With the storm at least 48 hours away, state Office of Emergency Management spokeswoman Mary Goepfert are getting ready and crossing their fingers that the worst will not occur.

"We’re already ramping up. We’re in a phase where we’re assessing our assets and making sure we have what we need available," she said. "If the scenario follows the (forecast) models and what they are saying at this point, this is a serious situation."